Talking with lawyer beforehand

This is a discussion on Talking with lawyer beforehand within the Concealed Carry Issues & Discussions forums, part of the Defensive Carry Discussions category; I talked to a relative last night who is a Lt. for Austin PD.
1) Yes, yes, and yes, don't give a statement without an ...

Some other useful information

I talked to a relative last night who is a Lt. for Austin PD.

1) Yes, yes, and yes, don't give a statement without an attorney present.

2) When you talk to the PD on the scene, he said some police get automatically suspicious if the first words out of your mouth are, "I want a lawyer". In his opinion, you should preface that with something like, "I have done nothing wrong, I was defending myself, but I cannot give you a statement until after I have talked to an attorney". He says some cops will understand, some won't. If you think you have a cop that doesn't understand why you don't want to just "tell him what happened", he said to ask the cop, "if you were involved with a police shooting, would you want to interview or talk to Internal Affairs without an attorney or a union rep? No. You'd want an attorney, too, just to be safe."

3) This seems obvious, but DON'T MANIPULATE THE CRIME SCENE. An exception can be made for disarming the suspect(s). Also, until the PD gets there, you need to "guard" your crime scene, as he said it isn't unusual for weapons to "walk away" from a crime scene. It is going to look bad for you when you tell the cops he had a knife/gun, but it isn't found at the crime scene. Make sure you keep an eye on the weapon(s) at all times until the police have secured them.

another thing...

Oops, forgot one...

4) You are almost 100% going to "take a ride downtown". It is likely you will just have to give a statement without actually being jailed, but it is a possibility. If the detective threatens to put you in jail until your attorney gets there unless you talk, tell him "that's fine, I'll wait for my attorney". Again, seems obvious, but just so you know what to expect.

But no ones going to just take a statement, say "OK, No Problem" and send you home.

From the self defense shootings I’ve read about, they are almost all like that.
I think you have to be in some questionable circumstances to begin with for it not to be a pretty clear cut case of self defense.
I recommend getting to know your lawyer well if you are a hothead and like to drink, fight, and cruise around in the shady parts of town all while carrying. If you are like me and spend the majority of your time w/ your family, at work and the occasional run the shopping centers, etc, then I think you really don’t need to have a lawyer on speed dial.
The other reason you may need one is if you live in an unfriendly gun state – I live in Arizona – pretty gun friendly.

If you ask a lawyer if you need a lawyer, the answer is always YES. How do you think they make a living. Ask a salesman if you need a vacuum or set of encyclopedias – guess what the answer will be.

Self Defence Help

Originally Posted by Gimpee

I tried doing a basic search to see if there are any posts about this already, I didn't find any, so if there are, please direct me to them.

After I took my CC class the instructor gave me a list of some lawyers to use in case the worst happens. My question is, should you meet with a lawyer beforehand so they know who you are? I don't think I could afford a "retainer" to keep someone just in case I ever need to use them.

My concern would be that I'd defend myself at say 2am and go call one of those lawyers and they wouldn't answer or don't know who I am so they don't care about helping.